The city of Miami’s court fight to keep Brickell residents from weighing in on a condo tower planned behind a historic church appears damned.
An appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that said city officials should have allowed residents in the IconBrickell II condo to intervene in the city’s decision to lift the landmark status of the school and parking lot directly east of the First Miami Presbyterian Church. The lower court had decided in favor of IconBrickell II in July, saying the city should have given unit owners a chance to have a say on nixing the historic designation.
The Third District Court of Appeals verdict issued on Tuesday marks the latest in the odyssey that 13th Floor Investments and Key International’s planned Nobu-branded tower has turned out to be.
Coconut Grove-based 13th Floor, led by Arnaud Karsenti, and Brickell-based Key International, led by the Ardid family, want to develop the 75-story 321-unit project on the 2-acre site of the school and parking lot at 619 Brickell Avenue. The church will remain intact and will be restored.
The developers have been steadily advancing the project this year. It is one in a sea of branded condo towers on tap in Miami, which has earned a reputation as the branded condo epicenter in the Western Hemisphere. As of this summer, 13th Floor and Key had secured more than $1 billion of unit reservations at Nobu, they said.
But to build on the site, the city first had to lift the school and parking lot’s historic designation. When city officials voted to do this in 2024 and 2025, they denied IconBrickell II’s request to weigh in on the decision as an intervenor, prompting the condo owners to pursue their court fight.
The developers, who aren’t a party to the litigation, say the latest ruling changes little, adding they have always welcomed “our neighbors to be heard” and that the project is proceeding.
“We remain steadfast in moving forward with the necessary steps to finalize this process, and the groundbreaking timeline” remains unchanged, 13th Floor and Key said in a joint statement with First Miami Presbyterian.
But Ernesto Cuesta, president of the Brickell Homeowners Association, said he expects that the project’s “going to be delayed” due to the appeals court’s decision.
The city and the church have 15 days to challenge the ruling, said Tara Faenza, IconBrickell II’s attorney.
If the city doesn’t appeal again, then the issue reverts back to the Miami historic board for a new vote, only this time the city would have to allow IconBrickell II unit owners — and any other Brickell residents who qualify to intervene — to have a say, Faenza said.
Miami officials didn’t respond to inquiries on whether they plan another appeal.
The opposition group isn’t against development, Cuesta said.
“We are against those people that are breaking the rules and working against the quality of life for residents,” he said.
Under city code, abutting property owners and those within 500 feet of a site are allowed to intervene, giving them a right to question witnesses and lay out their arguments.
IconBrickell II is 160 feet from the development site, with the small Brickell Park separating the two properties.
The Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board voted to nix the historic status for the school and parking lot in December 2024. City commissioners upheld the board’s decision last year. Both times, electeds denied IconBrickell’s request to intervene.
First Miami Presbyterian Church, designed in the Mediterranean Revival style by architect Lester Geisler, is widely considered home to Miami’s oldest congregation that organized in 1896, when the city incorporated. It was completed in 1949, with the one-story building added in 1953 and a second story built in the early 1960s.
The city designated the entire property historic in 2003, according to city records.
In their July ruling, three Miami-Dade Circuit Court judges wrote that the historic board and commission’s silencing of neighbors violated “the essential requirements of law. ”
Miami has argued that IconBrickell II failed to show how it will be directly harmed, beyond the effects the general public will experience. The city reiterated that position in its appeal of the July court ruling.
Condo residents have said they are concerned about noise, pollution and worsening of the air quality due to demolition and construction work, as well as potential damage to Brickell Park, according to court filings.
The bigger issue is that the city broke its own rules by denying neighbors a say, while the developers have bypassed the Brickell Homeowners Association from discussions, Cuesta said.
“The optics and the relationship with the community is not good,” he said, adding that the developers’ team reached out to him on Wednesday afternoon — after the Third DCA ruling — to request a meeting. It’s “the same pattern that the city of Miami has done lately [of not] preserving the historical landmarks in the city. And that is very deceiving.”
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